Italophile

Latest posts by Italophile

Fair enough. Anything is worth a try in poor summers. I'd still think about some sort of portable insulation in those conditions. Those plastic greenhouses can lose warmth overnight in cool conditions and toms actually do most of their growing overnight.

Temperature is the key to ripening tomatoes. They don't need direct sunlight. That's why they will ripen inside on a kitchen bench. Optimum temperature is anything above low-20sC. The lower the temp, the longer ripening will take.

Victor - if you're asking in terms of ripening your toms, see above. Reflected light won't help the ripening process. To retain warmth when the weather cools down you'd be better off insulating the greenhouse somehow.

Aubergines are like tomatoes, chillies, etc, in that technically they are perennials but are grown as annuals. Mainly because, in cooler climates, winter kills them off. A cold frame wouldn't keep them warm enough. You'd need at least a heated greenhouse. I know people who have overwintered them but in a warm climate. The results were mixed.

It's down to luck in terms of the combination of the fungal spores being around in damp or humid conditions. Given those conditions, odds are you'll finish up with it. As I said, it's about the most common rose fungal problem.

Ah, they're babies. Providing they're in a decent potting mix I wouldn't feed them at all yet. The roots are still vulnerable and you could burn them. I wouldn't overwater them either. Like any seedling they just need as much light and warmth as they can get.

There have been problems down there for a while, geoff. A few weeks ago, when I was trying to find a work around for the email problem, you couldn't save any changes. There was an error message saying to try again.

Still, I got an email notification of your post. Something's working. Some of the time.